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Description

Dental Pick is double-ended and used for cleaning grout from cracks and pits and for removing glue residue from gaps between mosaic tile. WARNING: THESE ARE SHARP. The shape of the points can vary from the photo shown, but the tips at each end can be bent and reshaped.

Dental Pick

double-ended steel dental pick

shapes of the pick ends can vary from the photo

The Importance of Cleaning Glue Residue

It is important that no glue residue extends up the sides of your tile. If adhesive isn’t covered with grout, then water can wick underneath the grout over time and cause tiles to pop off. You should inspect your mosaic by misting it before grouting. Any traces of glue on the sides and faces of the tile will start to turn white after a few minutes of being misted with water. You can use the point of a knife or box cutter to scrape away any glue residues you see coming up the sides of the tile to the top. However, tile in artistic mosaics made from hand-cut tile sometimes has points where tile actually touch each other at points, or the tile has extremely small grout gaps, similar to the spacing of human teeth. This makes a dental pick ideal for cleaning glue residue in these tight gaps.

How to Reduce Frustration

Tools like thumb tweezers and dental picks can save hours of tedium and reduce frustration by allowing you to position tile without disturbing tile that you have already positioned. With these simple tools, you will be able to attempt more detailed designs than you would consider if using only your fingertips.